Introduction The struggle for a better pay and less labor in America started on a low note with fewer people having the courage to join in, compared to majority, who remained quiet. Eventually, many people rose up against the employers, riots and collective strikes stroke the country, many people protested against the treatment they got from the capitalists. As Jeremy Brecher explains in The Great Upheaval, it all started in July 1877 when many strikes were held across America. The workers halted the operations of the most important business, the railroads. They fought the police, the state militia, and even the federal troops. Chicago was a major production that attracted people from all parts of the country. The town was, therefore, a good …show more content…
place to start the strikes, with the support of the railroaders and miners among many other workers.
The Haymarket Affair was the beginning to the rise of employee’s rights; All they wanted was a fair pay and less working hours and thus protested against the ten percent pay cut that was proposed by their employers. Nonetheless, this came at a cost following the Haymarket bombing at a labor demonstration in 1866. The Haymarket Affair was a major starting point for the US labor movement creating the pathway that lead to worker’s rights. The Background of the Strikes On Monday July 16th, 1877, in a town called Martinsburg in West Virginia, the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad announced a 10 percent pay cut which was a second one in a period of 8 months. The workers put down their tools and gathered at their offices in protest. The train operators, engineers, and firemen abandoned their work and the rest of the workers declined to replace them. They demanded the pay cut to be rescinded; failure to which no train would be allowed to operate. The mayor who came to assist the B&O officials ordered the arrest of the strike leaders but their supports would not let it happen, so they gave up. The B&O officials with the help of Governor Henry Mathews tried to use the Berkeley Light Guards to restore order …show more content…
but the protesters overpowered them too. On the second day morning, the transportation master in Martinsburg ordered a train to operate but the strikers stopped it, threatened to kill the engineer who ran away and the train was uncoupled and ran into the roundhouse. At one point, a train attempted to leave guarded by the militia and the Light Guards. One striker named William Vandergriff moved the switch to stop it and shot a policeman who tried to turn the switch back. He was in turn shot and this was a dawn for the spontaneous nationwide protest, as the officials at Martinsburg had given up. Many of the workers used the company cars and misused the available resources across all the railroad offices across the country and they were soon grounded. One week before, the engineers had protested in New Jersey, later formed a committee with the firemen to fight against it but was never listened to2. They wanted better working schedules which would allow them have time with their families and rest and they also wanted the system used to put the wages down by considering the length of service and efficiency of the workers stopped. One leader of the Pennsylvania Railroad, known as Tom Scott intimidated this committee and they agreed the cut, against the expectations of the workers. The only other way was forming a secret union, the Trainmen Union, which was started by the workers in Pittsburgh, Port Wayne and Chicago lines. It spread across the country, but there were spies who gave the railroad officials all the details. Four days after its formation, its leaders were fired. On June 24th, men tried to start a strike and were fired, together with all union members, causing panic and paralyzing the strike. The workers were left with only one option; to strike in unison without relying on the leaders. The trend continued as many more people joined the strike, including the few who had offered to remain obedient to the employers. Women and children joined too, to urge the men on. On that Sunday morning, strikers burnt down the freight cars in Pittsburg and other stations. By Monday morning, about 104 trains and 2000 cars had been destroyed. Almost in all towns, the trains had been non operational apart from the passenger trains that the strikers allowed through. In Chicago, the strike spread with strikers along Canal Street and Blue Street Avenue closing down factories and calling out to people to join the strike. They forced the employers in the stockyards and gasworks to sign a pay raise to $2 a day as many more people joined the strike. Amidst all these protests, many people had been injured and others had lost their lives. Many companies had counted losses, as all workers disrupted their factories and forced their closure. In 1886, as Oscar Ameringer explains, many people had joined the Knights of labor. He says that with everyone aboard, success was easy and almost guaranteed. Impacts on the US Labor Movement On May 4th, 1886 in Chicago, a labor protest rally supporting the eight-hours-day demand, a bomb was thrown by the anarchists and killed a policeman and injured many other people. Oscar Neebe was amongst the people arrested in connection to the bombing. He confessed to have been a member of the labor movement since 1875, but not involved in the bombing. Oscar Ameringer explains in his autobiography how he received the fatal news regarding the bombing at Haymarket in Chicago. Many of the strikers pulled out, policemen became more brutal and things became more serious. The army of the socialists was fading away. The employers at this point could tell that they did not have all the control above their workers; due to the tired, overworked, and underpaid employees. The legal proceedings saw eight people arrested, seven of whom were sentenced to death with Oscar Neebe getting 15 years in prison. Aftermaths of the bombing was a major shock among many of the strikers. As Oscar Ameringer puts it, “the news of the bombing came as an exceedingly cold blanket for the strikers. Many of the sympathizers started to quit, the weaker Knights broke ranks and the army of the social revolution started melting down5. The police grew more numerous and ill-mannered and so did the anger of the diminishing irreconcilable.” His statement shows that the labor movement took a turn to really express the anger of the employees, organized by the labor radicals, and setting a mass meeting beforehand, it is said that nearly 80,000 workers marched to protest. On the other hand, it was also a strengthening factor to the capitalists who held the movement responsible. In court, Oscar Neebe tells the jury that the government should be careful to avoid a repetition of the French revolution and to be more flexible and considerate, however, the jury was considered to be biased and against the movement. The labor movement saw the death of the seven people sentenced to death as martyrs. They used the news to make stronger their members; accusing the capitalists of dictatorship. Oscar Neebe during his trial said that it was better to be killed with the rest, to die a quick death rather than rotting in jail. He said that the socialists were doing their best to stop the strikes, but the capitalists were ignorant and wanted to overwork the employees in order to make more money. This was a chance for the movement to express their views through the court proceedings. The resistance grew stronger in Chicago and led to the establishment of the Labor Party of Chicago. However, the Haymarket affair had left a bad reputation for the anarchists and had held them back.
The hanging of these seven people brought disunity into the labor movement, and no matter how much their leader Terence V. Powderly tried to disown them, they remained guilty and accused by the general population. Powderly in his disowning speech gave a list of other anarchists and condemned with all words the acts of the ones arrested and defended the intentions of the labor market, a sign of the disunity in the labor movement. This impacted the future, creating a path for workers and highlighting their rights, such as, freedom of speech, and the right to free assembly. This major awakening created a spotlight that exposed poor labor, terrible pay, and long working hours; in hopes to end these terrible ways and to set a future where workers are treated fairly and have a voice; this was the beginning of eight hour working
days. Conclusion The goal of the nationwide strikes was to achieve a better pay, better working schedules and the eight-hour-day system was their climax. However, the strikers failed to hold one common goal. A part of them had the wrong intentions and some had personal interests. The leader of the movement spoke bitterly about the group of the strikers behind the bombing in Haymarket, saying the principles of the movement never supported such actions. Since 1877, the struggle for better pay was getting intense. More and more people joined, and masses were formed; state after state, spreading in all towns. The struggle by the trade unions brought the much-enjoyed work freedom in the current American labor market. The capitalists and socialists’ ideologies led to the struggle and went down in history as the major awakening of the American workers in the 19th century.
Ever since unfair British legislation, such as the Intolerable Acts, led to the American Revolution, banding together as a group proved effective in making a change. Organized labor is only another example of how sizable groups make more of an impact on large corporations than one person does. Labor unions improved the positions of workers by causing employers to think twice about wages, giving legal recognition such as lowering work hours and drawing attention to the issue of child labor. The increase in awareness that organized groups caused is what ultimately decided the court case of Muller v, Oregon in 1908, which made it illegal for women to work for more than ten hours a day.
“Industrial unions dominated the landscape of the late nineteen century U.S. labor movement.” They gathered all level workers together without discrimination of gender, race, or nationality. They declared the eight-hour workday for the first time when normal work time should be 12. Low wage of workers caused the “Great Strike of 1877”, which began with railroad workers in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. After the “Great Strike”, industrial union started to
Labor’s rights, this issue have been bothering many worker since the 19th century and can still be a problem today. As John L. Lewis has said in his speech “I repeat that labor seeks peace and guarantees its own loyalty, but the voice of labor, insistent upon its rights, should not be annoying to the ears of justice or offensive to the conscience of the American people” (John L. Lewis), which under his words meant that labor is something that can be done right and peacefully but it needs rules and benefits that come with those rules which labor asks for and when labor asks for those rules and benefits it shouldn’t be taken like some annoying kid’s demands but more as something that needs to be done and done with a right mind set. Labor today consists of a man or woman going to work, working their hours, and finally getting paid for those hours at the end of the week, at least a minimum of $7.50 an hour (United States Department of Labor), but before it wasn’t like that before many workers would get paid very poorly even thought they would work for a lot of hours and they wouldn’t get benefits from their work or safety when working such as in the mines like the mine workers, but one man stood up for them and his name was John L. Lewis (John Llewellyn Lewis, Encyclopedia).
Tensions between union supporters and management began mounting in the years preceding the strike. In April of 1994, the International Union led a three-week strike against major tracking companies in the freight hauling industry in attempts to stop management from creating $9 per hour part-time positions. This would only foreshadow battles to come between management and union. Later, in 1995, teamsters mounted an unprecedented national union campaign in attempts to defeat the labor-management “cooperation” scheme that UPS management tried to establish in order to weaken the union before contract talks (Witt, Wilson). This strike was distinguished from other strikes of recent years in that it was an offensive strike, not a defensive one. It was a struggle in which the union was prepared, fought over issues which it defined, and one which relied overwhelmingly on the efforts of the members themselves (http://www.igc.org/dbacon/Strikes/07ups.htm).
They had three main goals: to convince companies to recognize unions and agree to collective bargaining, support and push for closed shops and promote an eight-hour day. The American Federation of Labor’s main weapon was walkouts and boycotts to get industries to succeed with better conditions and higher wages. By the early 1900’s, its membership was up to 12 million workers. Through the years since the Great Depression, labor unions were responsible for several benefits for employees.
Life in the early 1900’s wasn’t easy. Competition for jobs was at an all time high, especially in New York City. Immigrants were flooding in and needed to find work fast, even if that meant in the hot, overcrowded conditions of garment factories. Conditions were horrid and disaster was inevitable, and disaster did strike in March, 1911. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York set on fire, killing 146 workers. This is an important event in US history because it helped accomplish the tasks unions and strikes had tried to accomplish years earlier, It improved working conditions in factories nationwide and set new safety laws and regulations so that nothing as catastrophic would happen again. The workplace struggles became public after this fire, and the work industry would never remain the same again.
The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike that are still important today. Was striking a proper means of getting what the workers wanted? Were there better means of petitioning their grievances? Was government intervention constitutional? All these questions were raised by the Pullman Strike.
against their employers, employees were able to go on strike and prove a point. Some
This suggests that they had negative relations with the government and authorities because their voices were not being listened to and they weren’t equally represented in the government’s policy decisions. Riot was a tactic employed to get their voices heard but there was a fine line between being listened to and retribution for their actions. For example, before the Oxfordshire rising in 1596, the people of Oxfordshire appealed to Lord Norris and other members of authority to help resolve the issue of dearth in the area. However, Lord Norris did little to help improve the situation and further appeals took place until the rebels resulted to riot in the hope of change. However, the rising against enclosure largely failed due to the lack of support, as only a handful of men turned up to support the rebels cause. Additionally, what gave rebellions the scale and force they had, such as the Pilgrimage of Grace, was the combination of supressed local grievances which had built up over time as they had not been effectively dealt with. For example, if someone heard a rumour about a potential uprising they may have become involved to express their personal grievances which may have been repressed in the past but had not achieved the outcome the rebels wanted. The Pilgrimage of Grace was caused by a combination of factors,
The Coal Strike of 1902 occurred as a result of many problems that were faced by miners. At the time of the coal strike there were 150,000 miners working in the mines (Grossman) Due to the depression of 1893, miners had their wages cut and were living in poverty (Grossman). Many miners were dissatisfied and looked to the United Mine Workers for support in raising their standard of living. This proved difficult since employers refused to recognize labor unions for fear of giving them significant control over the industry. In most instances of employee demands before 1902, employers would use government troops or hire immigrants to take the jobs of the strikers (David Kennedy).
The early 1900s was a time of many movements, from the cities to the rural farms; people were uniting for various causes. One of the most widespread was the labor movement, which affected people far and wide. Conditions in the nation’s workplaces were notoriously poor, but New York City fostered the worst. Factories had started out in the city’s tenements, which were extremely cramped, poorly ventilated, and thoroughly unsanitary. With the advent of skyscrapers, factories were moved out of the tenements and into slightly larger buildings, which still had terrible conditions. Workers were forced to work long hours (around 12 hours long) six hours a day, often for extremely low pay. The pay was also extremely lower for women, who made up a large portion of the shirtwaist industry. If a worker were to openly contest an employer’s rule, they would be promptly fired and replaced immediately. Also, strength in numbers did not always work. Managers often hired brutal strikebreakers to shut movements down. The local police and justice were often of no help to the workers, even when women were being beaten. At the time, the workers needs were not taken seriously and profit was placed ahead of human life. This was not just a struggle for workers’ rights; it was also a movement for the working class’ freedom.
were put to death. Even though the original opinion of the people about the uprising wasn’t in favor of it, after the death of the leaders they were outraged. (Coogan,”Troubles” pgs. 19-25)
The owner of the town and company George Pullman had workers’ wages get cut in addition to workers getting leadoff. Many people who worked for the company whose wages got cut had trouble affording the standard living costs in Pullman and were given “starvation wages.” The organization of the pissed off workers followed. The workers would go on a nationwide strike organized by the American Railway Union and was led by a man named Eugene debs. Eugene and his union was so powerful because they possessed the ability to paralyze the production of the railroad industry.
Zinn, Howard. "The Great Railroad Strike, 1877." A People's History of the United States (2006). Article. 30 March 2014.
In 1893 the U.S went through a depression that might have been more of a panic. The depression was led by a series of shock that undermined public confidence and brought the economy down. For instant the Amalgamated Association unions contract that skilled iron – and steelworker among a complex of 3,800 people. The chapters state that, “the union gave the Amalgamated Association a considerable say in their operation, including the right to approve the hiring of new workers and to regulate the pace of work”. It’s clear that the union is giving the owners and the employee’s rights to and for work. However when the union came on board the both Henry Clay Frick and Carnegie secure the surroundings of homestead and fire they entire work force